Rock guitarists come to Peoria to celebrate music of Jimi Hendrix

Wednesday

Mar 26, 2014 at 5:08 PM

ZACH BERG of the Journal Star

As rock ’n’ roll legends go, Jimi Hendrix stands alone. Most of the still popular musical acts that shaped rock in the 1960s — The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who — were bands with multiple rock legends in them. He had no such co-star. He didn’t even have a No.1 single and died at the young age of 27. Still, his status as “rock god” is unquestioned.

That’s why the Experience Hendrix Tour, a collection of noted rock guitarists coming together to play his music, is coming to the Peoria Civic Center April 6. Hendrix is still a legend and his music is still in demand. His music still shakes pop culture and stereo speakers 44 years after his death.

“He was the brightest sun in a galaxy of stars,” Billy Cox, longtime friend of Hendrix and former bass player for the Jimi Hendrix Experience, said during a phone interview. “I tell people that Jimi wrote in the now, like Gershwin or Mozart. His music transcends time and race because of that.”

To this day, Hendrix is hugely popular. The latest posthumous studio album of his, “People, Hell & Angels,” was the ninth most purchased album of 2013 on Amazon.com. A film based on Hendrix’s life starring rapper Andre 3000, “All Is By My Side,” is being released this year. The Experience Hendrix Tour exists to feed a nation still begging for more Hendrix.

Contemporaries of Hendrix’s and newer artists influenced by his music fill that need by presenting and preserving his music the way it was supposed to be: live and loud.

“We all have a heck of a time on stage. We look forward to the show because we become one big family and we all have one thing in common: Hendrix,” Cox said. “Every guitar player there got their start listening to Hendrix.”

That includes all 12 artists performing Hendrix’s music at the Peoria concert, including Dweezil Zappa (son of Frank Zappa); Brad Whitford, guitarist of Aerosmith; and Robb Kreiger, former lead guitarist of The Doors.

Even Cox, a noted bass player who has played with the likes of Sam Cooke and Little Richard, got his start with Hendrix. Both were at Fort Campbell, Ky., in 1961 while serving in the Army. One night, Cox overheard guitar playing in the distance. “I said that it sounded pretty different, another guy said it sounded like crap. Obviously I was listening with a different ear.”

Cox followed the guitar sounds to a bathroom stall where Hendrix was strumming a rented guitar. Cox introduced himself, told Hendrix he played bass and said his guitar playing was unique. Hendrix said they should jam some time. That began the first musical group Hendrix ever played with.

“We got out of the Army around the same time and we depended on each other,” Cox said of the years he and Hendrix spent living and playing together in the Nashville, Tenn., area. “We were connected at the hip. Even when he left and did his own thing, he remembered me.”

Hendrix’s own thing would be moving to New York in 1964 and bouncing around clubs till The Jimi Hendrix Experience hit it big in 1966. After the Experience’s original bassist, Noel Redding, left the band, Cox was brought on to play with his Army friend as the closing act at Woodstock.

After his first band had disintegrated, Hendrix formed The Band of Gypsys and played alongside Cox again. As the new band was playing, Hendrix told Cox that he wanted to play with another guitarist alongside him, noting that bands like The Yardbirds — which employed legendary guitarists Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page — were using multiple guitarists. He never found one that fit with him according to Cox.

“He was telling me if he just had another guitar player, it could lift these songs up,” Cox said.

Now, 44 years after his untimely death, Hendrix is finally getting what he wished for.

“We do that with these concerts, we’re able to use lots of guitars and really bring his songs up.”

The music of Hendrix’s is sacred to everyone on the tour, so they treat it with as much respect and love as possible.

“Everyone on this tour is a Jimi aficionado. We add some variations to make the music a little more modern, but not very much, we like to keep things clean,” Cox said.

More than anything, they want to honor his music and play in its truest nature. For Cox, it’s about preserving the memories of a friend that helped shape his life while also shaping the soul of rock ’n’ roll.

“You can hear its influence all over rock today because, well, every person knows he’s with the geniuses of art. He was coming from another portal,” Cox said. “People would ask me if he was an alien, and I’d tell them he’d just open a portal up, step in, grab an idea, come out and blow our minds. He was from another time and place musically. We’re just trying to do my friend’s music justice.”

Zach Berg can be reached at zberg@pjstar.com or 686-3257. Follow him on Twitter @ZacharyBerg.

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